By David Scott
Boston Sports Media Watch

FT. MYERS, Fla. - A week ago, NESN’s Tom Caron was shoveling snow off his man-made ice rink in the backyard of his home in west suburban Boston. In doing so, he pulled an oblique muscle playing the role of hockey dad, but played (and worked) through the pain to give his two young boys - Jack and Robbie - and their friends, a safe, clean sheet of ice to skate upon.

Seven days later, in the western part of Florida the Lewiston, Maine-native was signing baseballs under a blazing sun, from the NESN stage plunked down at The Crossroads of the Red Sox spring training facility. The dichotomy and irony of backyard rink Daddy Tom and television’s “TC,” can not be overlooked. He’s Super Dad by day and Super Anchor by night and because of it, he’s signing the sweet spot on pristine baseballs. Sometimes his name gets placement right next to the Sox Spring sensation, Dice K.

It’s bizarre, really.

“I say that all the time when people come up with balls to sign,” said Caron, 43, who began at NESN in 1996. “‘You’ve got some pretty good names on there. You’ve got (David) Ortiz on the sweet spot. Are you sure you want mine on there?’ Sometimes, they come with a blank ball and I figure they struck out with all the players, so I’m probably Plan B.”

Truth is, Caron’s nobody’s Plan B - least of all NESN‘s.

“He’s a pro’s pro, that’s the best way I can describe it,” said Globe “SportsPlus” show producer, Alan Miller, who works with Caron on the (soon to be defunct) long-form, half-hour discussion. “He ‘gets it.’ And with the ratings that the Sox do and the amount of time he is on-screen during the season - he’s arguably the most watched sportscaster in New England.”

That translates into the autograph requests, the face recognition and the questions from fans like those watching Friday’s morning tapings, which range from, “How they gonna be this year, TC?” (“Fine, especially once they figure out the closer situation,” he said) to “Tough life, eh?” (“It beats working,” Caron laughed.)

Working is exactly what Caron is doing - between Sox duties and his Hockey East responsibilities, Caron may very well be the hardest working man in Boston TV. On Friday, for example, that work encompassed taping two, half-hour shows and working the entire complex to get a feel for the day’s events. It’s no wonder he was caught snoozing (and rudely awoken by Shots) in the sun on the Jordan’s Furniture-provided Famous Blue Chairs that were moved off-set, on the grass, following the “SportsPlus” show. “I’m a big fan of the nap,” Caron said.

And the fans are big fans of Caron, who has been at NESN for more than a decade and is now one of two on-air TC’s (along with the emerging Tina Cervasio).

“When I first started out here, I talked to [long-time Bruins studio host] Tom Larson (nee Lanny Larason) and he would talk about the time of the Bruins glory days and how he somehow became ‘part’ of the team,” Caron said. “Nothing surprises me with the Red Sox and once you’re affiliated with them, it just gets crazy from there on. It was a bit surreal that first time (when I was doing the reporter role for the Sox) and I saw my name on a sign that a fan had made.”

Safe to say, the confident, diligent Caron is now more accustomed to his celebrity status and has even taken to signing his autographs with a “NESN” underneath his John Hancock. “That way when, years down the road, they can’t figure out who the heck ‘Tom Caron’ was, they’ll know I was the guy at NESN.”

As the Caron Rink skaters can tell you, Tom Caron is a bit more than just the guy at NESN>

. . . Jen the Barkeep at the famed Ft. Myer’s Ale House (a long toss from the Shots Marriott points-getting accommodations) has swept in and stolen the week’s Most Valuable Player award, hands down. The Medina, Ohio native (and sassy, saucy redhead) not only quickly and courteously found our Marquette/Notre Dame game on The Bird Saturday afternoon, but she also shared a dislike for the Irish that would match any “esteemed writer” with heavy Marquette allegiances.

Wally the Ale House Bar Fixture (not to be confused with Wally the Green Monster) has designs on Jen’s mom, Donna. I hereby need to be Wally’s son-in-law, when and if that happens.

. . . Former Boston radio producer Louise K. Cornetta appeared at The Fort on Saturday. Cornetta was a mover and shaker at both WEEI and for the launch of ESPN Radio Boston, but is now at ESPN radio national for ESPN AllNight, if we’re not mistaken. She was also the media member who got the 2006 Valentine’s Day Delonte West Page 2 interview that recently got new life after West’s unfortunate incident. Cornetta, a popular figure with players and fellow media members alike, even managed a Big Papi hug in the post-workout clubhouse access period.

Shots wants a Big Papi hug, too!

. . . Speaking of Papi we haven’t seen either Papi’s Puppy Mikey or Clubhouse Dog Bruiser in two days now. Bruiser especially was a valued part of our first couple of days in camp. Shots tends to get a bit homesick for Percival the Dog when we travel to and fro and we often seek the comfort of a replacement dog on the road.

Fortunately, Cousin Brady is entertaining Percy all week long, in the hills of Sharon, so we know our boy’s being spoiled properly.

I just hope Bruiser hasn’t been banned form the complex as to not offend the Papi Puppi.

. . . Mysterious Sox Stats Maven, Bill James was at Camp on Saturday. He disappeared into the mist of the media trailers following the Matsuzaka session.

. . . Sox players were given results of cholesterol tests administered earlier in camp. J.D. Drew was one player who we saw checking his test scores and comparing with teammates. We didn’t catch the number, but he said it was high and that he eats a lot of fried food. We suggested Lipitor, but Drew vehemently shook his head on that one. “I’m not taking any pills at all,” he said.

Good policy, we think. Very good policy.

. . .Caron said he’ll miss the “SportsPlus show” (which is being replaced by “The Globe 10.0” on May 8thwith a new host or hosts and different format).

“I like the long-form type of show,” said Caron, who has handled the Neumie role with a decided deftness. “I feel like that is my niche - the long form format. It’s somewhere between TV news and talk radio and as the host, you’re trying to bring the best out of your guests.

. . . Glenn Geffner, one-third of the Entercom Sox Broadcast team (for WRKO and WEEI), has been around all week and we saw Joe Castiglione one day earlier in the week. Still no sign of Dave O’Brien, but he’s hitting some heavy work times with college hoops Tournament season unfolding. He’s scheduled to get down in the near future.

Geffner has been hanging with Sox PR Boss, John Blake’s son, Chris, an aspiring radio voice. “I’ve shown him the secret radio guy handshake and a few other tricks,” joked the affable Geffner, who expects to work a three-man booth at least once in spring, before settling into a rotation with fellow Sox radio newbie, O‘Brien. Castiglione will be the constant, while the other two share second-man-in duties, with Geffner likely to get more of the reps as O’Brien will maintain an ESPN workload as well.

. . . This note from Caron’s NESN.com bio had us singing Jim Croce tunes all day long: “. . . While working with the Portland (Maine) Pirates (in 1993), Caron also served as the play-by-play announcer for the New England Stingers of Roller Hockey International. . .”

. . . Caron does his own make-up and hair on the road and carries around all of his materials (beauty products and informational references as well) in a black carry-on with wheels. Prior to going on-set, he stood a mirror from the bag on a nearby ladder, dabbed at his face from a compact and then used a blue can of hairspray to hold his coif in place. Anita the Stage Manager later had to add more product to Caron’s locks and pat them down, just before air time.

. . . Dice K signed autographs for close to 45 minutes and may indeed be the most patient and obliging baseball player of all time (hyperbole intended, but not overly done). Following that, he did his obligatory media responsibilities at both the Johnny Miller bench in front of the clubhouse (for English fans) and at the Funai Tent (for the Japanese speakers). He signs with the following, in cursive: “Dmats” and then “No. 18.” And then, “Johnny Damon.”

No, kidding. Just the first two.

. . . A great snippet from the Sox post-workout clubhouse when extra outfielder Brandon Moss had to hang back, away from his locker, as the media swarmed his neighbor, non-roster invitee Jacoby Ellsbury who faced Matsuzaka in BP. Sitting near the bulletin board toward the front of the clubhouse, and watching the crowd overtake his locker space, Moss joked with teammates that “I’ll wait to get changed.”

“Now you know what the Matsuzaka Effect is all about, eh?” we asked.

“Oh yeah,” said Moss. “But I wanted to hear what (Ellsbury) was saying too! I wasn’t against him today.”

He’ll surely be able to read all about the hitters’ reactions to Dice-K as all four of the batters were treated like superstars by the inquiring minds of Japan and America.

. . . Probably worth the effort to give you a bit of Jonathan Papelbon’s take on the new rules being emphasized by MLB to both speed up the game (the ‘12-Second” Doctrine) and curtail beanball incidents. He made the comments on Saturday morning in the clubhouse:

Said Papelbon, “They’re implementing all these new rules. I don’t really know. I’m not even going to worry about it. . . just go out and pitch and I’m not going even going to worry about like ‘Oh, I gotta get this pitch in in one second.’

“They’re going to be sticklers about it and then they’re talking about the bean ball and, ‘Oh, we had so many bean balls last year.” And it’s like, well, Dude. . . they’re sitting there trying to tell us that you can’t make it obvious that you’re going after a guy. If one of our guys gets hit in the first inning (they’re saying) don’t go out there hit one and one of their guys in the second inning.

“That’s bullshit, you know? You’re going to gain no respect from your team and we’re in the trenches together, man. If I go out there and say if my guy, Mikey Lowell or somebody like that gets hit, well, you’re damn right I’m going to come get one of their guys. I’ll go get him the very next inning. If I didn’t do that I’d would get no respect form my teammates, you know? That’s just not the way the game works, they’re trying to change the game on us, man.

“It’s part of the game, man. You can’t change the game. You ask anybody who has played in the last 100 years if they had any repsect for their teammates, they do it. It’s showing the other team in that other dugout that, ‘Hey, we ain’t gonna let this happen.’ With them trying to change that rule, I think it’s kind of retarded.”

Paps rules, doesn’t he? We’re still hoping Friendly’s gets him for the weekly FSNNE Scoop spot.

. . . It’s probably more a connecting of the dots than a true, legitimate development, but Steve Rushin is out at Sports Illustrated and the Boston Sports Guy, Bill Simmons, has simultaneously been rumored to be done at ESPN.com. A job swap is not out of the question, with ESPN.com probably in line to make a run at Rushin.

The Simmons rumors arise every now and then and it’s no stretch to think that the Boston Sports Guy is ready for a move, especially one that might define his career. We’ve got an email into the SG and we’ll let you know if he gets back to us with anything pertinent.

. . . Shots won the lottery! Shots won the lottery!

Sort of. We had been given the privilege of being allowed to purchase Sox tickets through their web-based sale of Monster Seats. We managed to secure ducats to games in April and May in the standing room section, which at 30 bucks a ticket is really a bargain buy. We were actually a bit surprised that any tickets remained by the time we remembered about the opportunity (10:30 p.m.), which began on Saturday morning. Prime games were gone of course, but I just dig the whole experience up on The Wall. No seat is necessary, really. . .

. . . Maybe we haven’t come as far as we thought in the Boston blogosphere, after all. The Globe had no “Extra Bases” presence at Boston.com on Saturday. (The Herald had one noontime post and Rob Bradford had two for the Eagle-Tribune, while MLB.com’s Ian Browne, while not blogging per se, is having stories posted in a timely manner, EVEN on the weekend.) We “get” the fact that weekends slow down considerably with the dearth of office workers with Internet access. But there’s something to be said for conditioning users to come to your biggest beat’s blog seven days a week, and at the very least get mid-daily updates from Ft. Myers. Bradford and Browne’s employers are doing that. The Globe is not.

The impressive debut by out-of-the-box Rob Bradford is an indication that the wheels are spinning at some outlets, who are developing blog revenue streams by offering 7-day, 24-hour coverage of the region’s most adored franchise. Bradford has the potential to make the Eagle-Tribune site a must-bookmark destination. BOB is showing glimpses of being a cross between Reiss’s Pieces for the Red Sox and Deadspin/Kissing Suzy Kolber.

I don’t use any of those three examples lightly, so you are getting a feel for how strongly I feel about the talents and smarts of Blogford.

. . . We wish the Sox official potato chip had been Cape Cod, but Wise does have a nice salt and vinegar offering. The 3-year agreement has led at least one reporter to proudly explain that he now knows how to spell Cheez Doodles.

. . . Francona had this to say on the Dice K phenomenon, comparing the His Gyroness to His Airness, Michael Jordan, whom Francona had in the White Sox system:

“When Micahel would take batting practice, you’d hear the (shutters from the) cameras, kind of like you did with Dice-K (today). It’s a little similar. That and Pete Rose, those are three that come to mind (in terms of attention).”

. . . We’re trying to put together a Shots at Sox Spring Training Oscars Viewing Party at the Ale House on Sunday night (Ale House Red Carpet show begins during the Baba Wawa special, if you’re in the ‘hood). Sadly, Jen the Barkeep is off during the evening hours, but her memory and the supply of Yuengling will keep us happy during the annual extravaganza of Hollywood opulence. We might even need to start a pool for the festivities - or can someone draw up a grid for boxes to be purchsed? That can’t only be a Super Bowl tradition, right?

. . . Two more days of Fort Shots, so be sure to get your fill before we head off into the wild blue yonder of college hoops for the next five weeks.

. . . P.S. Send more sunblock.